The invention relates to an apparatus for the transport of stacks of blanks, especially for the production of cigarette packs of the hinge-lid type, the stacks of blanks which are lying next to one another being capable of being fed to a packaging machine or to another unit.
Blanks for hinge-lid packs are normally delivered as prefabricated stacks of blanks, mostly in rows and superimposed layers on pallets. During unloading of the pallets , usually rows of stacks of blanks are lifted off the pallet and deposited onto a conveyor band (stack conveyor). The stacks of blanks are fed to the packaging machine or a blank magazine from said stack conveyor, To the stack conveyor, a preconveyor (row conveyor) is often assigned, onto which the row of stacks of blanks is deposited by a lift means, and which feeds the complete row transversely relative to its longitudinal dimension to the stack conveyor as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,915--Berger et al whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention is based on the object of further developing and improving aparatuses of this kind, to the effect that the operation of the subsequent packaging machine can be maintained at least for a limited time, even if the supply of stacks of blanks to the stack conveyor is interrupted.
In order to attain this object, the apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that at least one separate conveyor for stacks of blanks, namely an additional conveyor is assigned to the stack conveyor, by means of which individual stacks or a plurality of stacks of blanks can be fed to the stack conveyor as required.
The apparatus according to the invention is thus designed so that stacks of blanks can be channeled into the conveying process as required. This is required, above all, if the apparatus for the discharge of the stacks of blanks from the pallet or the like temporarily breaks down.
One or two additional conveyors may immediately adjoin the stack conveyor and/or preconveyor on its free side.
Further important features of the invention are auxiliary devices for the facilitated feed of the additional conveyor with stacks of blanks. For this purpose, the additional conveyor can be moved, especially lowered, into a feeding position. In the region of the feeding position, separating walls or separating webs take effect on a conveyor strand of the additional conveyor which is designed as a conveyor band, the separating webs permitting an accurate arrangement of the stacks of blanks on the additional conveyor. An exemplary embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings. In these